Tyrone Garland, Bartram (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Tyrone Garland, featured on MaxPreps.com in May, figures the timing couldn’t be any better. With many college basketball coaches here in Philadelphia for the 3rd Annual Reebok All-American camp, the 6-foot-1, 165-pound Bartram High (Philadelphia, Pa.) point guard thinks it’s time to make his college choice. Garland will announce that choice at 5 p.m. today at a press conference.
But according to a number of sources Wednesday night, concluding the first day of the Reebok Camp, the best scorer in the Philadelphia area and probably the state, will be heading to Virginia Tech. Garland will choose Virginia Tech over LaSalle, Nebraska, Temple, St. Bonaventure, Maryland, Seton Hall, Providence and Butler. All showed interest, and all kept their eyes closely trained on Garland Wednesday during the first day of the camp.
But Garland, who led Philadelphia in scoring last season, averaging 28.9 points a game, is going to make Hokies’ coach Seth Greenberg a very happy man at the midway session of the second day at Camp Reebok. What Greenberg and Virginia Tech will be getting is a quick slasher to the basket, a player who can create his own shot and an adept passer.
“This summer is very big for me,” Garland told MaxPreps back in May. “My goal is to try to play well and make one of those big all-star games my senior year, like the McDonald’s All-America, but I basically want to work on getting better. That’s the priority. I know if I get the opportunity, I know I can do some things.”
Like land a big-time ride to a major school that plays in a major conference. Virginia Tech finished 19-15 overall last season and near the bottom of the ACC with a 7-9 conference mark. The Hokies were not invited to the NCAA, and instead wound up in the NIT, where they were knocked out in the second round by Baylor, 84-66.
Joseph Santoliquito covers high schools for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a frequent contributor to MaxPreps.com. He can be contacted at JSantoliquito@yahoo.com.
